Phil Hertz holds a small lead over Brian Walton as we start the season’s second half. How did the league line up in June?
Phil and Brian were neck and neck last month, and for the whole season.
Scott Wilderman and Derek Carty have worked their way almost into contention, and this could be a mess when we revisit next month.
TOUT AL
Rob Leibowitz dominated Tout AL in June.
That helped him climb past Jason Collette into first place. All the credit can’t go the Eric Sogard, Edwin Encarnacion, Mike Minor and Justin Verlander helped, too, but Sogard’s career month certainly didn’t hurt.
With a bit more than a month passed in the 2019 season, Tout Wars standings are starting to define themselves a bit. Here’s a look at the teams in the lead:
Tout AL: Jason Collette has a slim lead over Patrick Davitt. Here are the standings through May 5:
Tout Mixed Auction: Derek VanRiper has a slim lead over Eric Karabell. The standings:
Tout NL: Brian Walton has a lead over Grey Albright.
Tout Mixed Draft: Rudy Gamble is winning, of course. DJ Short and Scott White are trying to make it interesting.
Tout H2H: Clay Link has a four game lead over Ryan Bloomfield and Ian Kahn.
Each year we charge each Tout Wars team an imaginary $100 for playing, and award the top finishers in each league imaginary winnings. You can see the complete results by clicking here.
The top finishers for the last five years can be seen here.
The all time leaders list is a little bit different.
Congratulations to all the leaders. Well played!
Tim Heaney is a Tout Wars champion.
How does he feel about that? Let’s let him say:
His big draft day buys were Javier Baez ($6), Eddie Rosario ($3), Blake Snell and Miles Mikolas ($6 each). That left plenty of budget for extravagances like JD Martinez and Madison Bumgarner, and a championship.
My second year in Tout Wars H2H was a big improvement on the first.
The move to a points-based scoring system (from categories), with every out recorded being worth a point, played into my strengths as a player. I’ve found that I am better at finding an edge on the pitching side, and in this format, I was rewarded greatly (more so than in standard 5×5 leagues) for my pitching finds. I finished second, and while it’s sometimes said that second place is “first loser,” I consider this a great accomplishment given the quality of the field.
I won six consecutive matchups to close out the season and felt like I really had the league down from a roster-construction standpoint late in the year. Unfortunately for me, by the time I had the pieces in place, it was too late to catch Jake Ciely. I emerged from the auction and reserve draft with a poorly constructed roster — four hitters on my bench. By the end of the season, I did not have a single hitter on my bench, and I think that’s the way you have to play this 12-team points format. With two lineup periods per week — Monday and Friday lineup submissions — it’s important to just have a slew of arms to rotate into your lineup to maximize points. I learned to treat the waiver wire as my bench for hitters, picking up hitters only when there was a need in my starting lineup.
My highest scorers:
Notable pickups:
Interestingly, James Shields, who I streamed for only one week, would have ranked 12th on my team in points had I left him in for all of his starts (384 points), highlighting the importance of innings.
Busts: Willson Contreras ($11), Nomar Mazara ($11) — not a terrible year for Mazara in standard roto leagues, but he finished with fewer points than Kyle Seager in this format — Luke Weaver ($10), Dinelson Lamet ($5), Scott Kingery ($5).
–Clay
Yes, with the end of the Tout Wars season comes the end of Doubt Wars, the game where people buy the players bought in Tout Wars (+$1) and try to put together better teams.
Only one team, The Good Doctor in the Mixed League, was able to beat the Tout Champ this year. The Good Doctor did it with a pitching staff that included Trevor Bauer, Gerrit Cole, Patrick Corbin, Justin Verlander, Blake Snell, Charlie Morton, Blake Treinen, Brad Boxberger, and Sean Doolittle. Wow!
The Good Doctor is Robert Mirshak, and he edged Tout Champ Tim Heaney’s team, which finished second.
In Doubt NL the top three teams beat the top civilian, Splinters. Steve Gardner, Tristan Cockcroft and Grey Albright repeating their order of finish, with the Splinters just behind Albright. The Splinters is Warner Lewis.
Rick Wolf and Glenn Colton, Tout AL champs, trounced the AJ Puks, who finished second with the top civilian score. The AJ Puks were played by Mark Fass.
Robert Mirshak, Warner Lewis and Mark Fass will be receiving a collection of baseball annuals and online memberships this winter to help their preparation for 2019. But that isn’t why we play, is it?
You can see final standings and point totals for all three leagues by clicking here.
Congratulations to all the winners.
In an up and down race, which saw 2017 champ Grey Albright take an early lead, lose it in May to eventual champ Steve Gardner, take it back again and open it up again through August, only to be pushed aside by Gardner in early September, and then be passed by Tristan Cockcroft, too. Whew.
Here are the final standings.
Gardner may have been challenged by three-time champ Cockcroft in the end, but he was able to hold on. And his victory was foretold by the draft day standings. He had the best auction in the league.
The closeness of the final standings may be because Gardner had a comfortable hand all season. he made no trades, and only one big FAAB pickup. That would be 707 samoleons for Eduardo Escobar, which helped, it may have made the difference, but wasn’t a difference maker.
Steve Gardner last won Tout Wars NL in 2011.
